Friday, January 31, 2014

DaGMT 2014

I like listening to episodes of Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam when I'm working on a project, and I was much struck by a topic which she discussed at the end of December. People often ask her how she manages to accomplish so much. She said that one reason she appears to make so much progress is that she limits the number of projects that she is working on at any one time. I don't mean that she limits herself to only one project and forces herself to finish it before starting another. But she focuses her effort on a small, limited number so that her progress is more visible.

She also urged her listeners to make a push this year to actually finish things and to reexamine our piles of UFOs and decide whether or not we really want to finish them. I think this makes sense. If we no longer like a project, we should give it away to someone who does. Or, as she also suggested, perhaps we should repurpose a project, turning an incomplete queen-sized comforter into a lap quilt -- or even a baby quilt. Or redefine a partially completed project as offical "Orphan Blocks" which could then be used in a charity quilt or on the back of some other project we are more eager to complete.

I'm a "process" rather than a "project"sort of person, which is to say that I don't care how long it takes for me to finish project -- ten hours, ten months, or ten years! For me, it's the journey not the destination. And I've been perfectly happy working on many, many projects at once. But as I've gotten older, I've finally begun to feel the need to focus lest I die with nothing more to my credit than an unused fabric stash and a tower of project boxes.

Therefore:

"I, Catholic Bibliophagist, owner of too many UFOs and/or more fabric than I can
hope to use up in my lifetime, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's third
annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for at least 20 minutes every day of the month of February, 2014. In doing so I
hope to actually FINISH some of my many Works In Progress, and I think Beth Helfter is
brilliant for coming up
with this concept and inspiring me to join. (And thank you, Bonnie Hunter, for your inspiration too.)"